Upcoming readings for the SI Leeds Literary Prize

Posted on October 6, 2016 by admin

So, I’ve made it onto the shortlist for the 2016 SI Leeds Literary Prize! The prize will be awarded on Wed, Oct 12th at the Ilkley Literature Festival, at a reading and event with Malika Booker. On Sunday, Oct 9th, we’ll also be reading as part of the London Literature Festival at the SouthBank Centre, where award-winning writer Bernardine Evaristo will chair an important discussion on diversity in publishing and writing. Come join us at either event!

I already had a fantastic time at the first SI Leeds Literary Prize event at the Rich Mix on September 19th, which was hosted by Sunny Singh. It was a pleasure meeting the other shortlisted authors, each of whom has a unique and valuable perspective in her writing — and I look forward to seeing them again at the upcoming events! Here’s all of us on stage at the Rich Mix event:

On stage looking a bit awkward at the Rich Mix…

I’m shortlisted for the unpublished manuscript of my upcoming novel Dark Chapter, which my agents will be representing at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Here’s their pre-Frankfurt newsletter. They’ve been wonderfully supportive of me for the past year, and we’re all looking forward to the novel’s publication in 2017 in multiple countries!

In other news, I’m continuing to meet with other activists and artists on the issue of sexual assault and consent, both in the UK and elsewhere. On September 16th, I attended the first-ever Being the Story event, which focused on storytelling to advance social justice and humanitarian causes. I was asked by the organizers sounddelivery to write a guest-blog on my own uses of storytelling to address sexual assault, and you can read it here.

US & UK book deals for my debut novel!

Posted on July 13, 2016 by admin

YES – it’s finally, actually happening! I am absolutely beyond thrilled (and relieved) to announce my debut novel, Dark Chapter, will be published worldwide next year — in North America by Polis Books and in the UK/Ireland by Legend Press. Both are dynamic independent publishers, which have been going from strength to strength in recent years. So I am very pleased to be part of these teams on both sides of the Atlantic, and to work with them on finding innovative ways to connect with audiences. After all, one main reason I wrote this novel was to start a more public conversation about the many angles to sexual assault — and I’m glad to have two fantastic publishers make that possible in my home countries. My agents were thrilled to close these deals – here’s their announcement!

And here’s the Polis Books announcement. They call my novel ‘bold, riveting, and above all, human.’ I’m liking those words! I was very lucky to have these words of praise from New York Times-bestselling author Marti Leimbach:

Marti’s novel Age of Consent is out now, and the encouragement of other authors and advocates on this issue has been vital for me.

In Sweden, Norstedts (publisher of Stieg Larsson, Margaret Atwood, and Elena Ferrante, among others) have already signed up to publish Dark Chapter. So watch this space for news on publication dates and more publishers!

A Swedish book deal & my current PhD research at the LSE

Posted on January 12, 2016 by admin

Happy 2016! This update is very overdue, but I haven’t had much spare time these past few months, ever since starting my PhD. But more on that later…

The first bit of exciting news is that my debut novel Dark Chapter has its first publication deal — it’ll be coming out in Sweden in Spring 2017 thanks to Norstedts, one of Sweden’s most prestigious publishing houses. They also publish Margaret Atwood, Elena Ferrante, Colm Tóibín, and they discovered Stieg Larsson, so it’s not bad company to be in! The deal was listed at the top of Publishers Weekly Hot International Book Properties in November. I’m looking forward to publishers making the book available in other countries… I hope you are, too!

Alongside my creative writing, I’ve begun my PhD at the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics. I’ll be researching the impact of social media on the public dialogue about rape and sexual assault — a very topical subject, and obviously, one which I feel strongly about, given my own experience and exploration of the issue. You can watch a video and read an article on my research here:

At the end of October, I spoke at the Feminism in London Conference, as a nominee for the annual Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize. I didn’t win in the end, but it was an honor to be at the awards ceremony, both as an Individual Award nominee and as a representative of the Clear Lines Festival (nominated for the Group Award). To have the chance to meet the other shortlisted women — and hear about their collective efforts working against gender-based violence — was nothing short of inspiring.

Me and Kate Llewellyn representing Clear Lines

Speaking of Clear Lines, we have begun to release videos from the festival online. You can watch them for free here, including videos of me speaking on the panel about news coverage of sexual assault, commenting on what it’s like to have your own rape reported in the media. There’s also videos from our Spoken Word Night, featuring some very talented poets, and more videos will pop up over the next few months.

You can read my end-of-2015 round-up here. Looking forward to what 2016 will bring!

Prize nominations, a literary agent, a feature in the Irish Times — exciting stuff

Posted on October 18, 2015 by admin

It’s been a busy few months for me since the Clear Lines Festival… I’ve been doubly shortlisted for the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize, awarded annually to recognize women working against male violence. This year for the individual prize, they focused on women who use writing in their activism, so I’m quite humbled to be nominated alongside other, more prolific women who write regularly for The Guardian or have had entire books published. Clear Lines was also nominated for the group prize, along with three fantastic organizations: Million Women Rise, Sisters Uncut, and Rights of Women. Anyway, I’ll be speaking on Sunday afternoon, October 25th, at the Feminism in London Conference, and the winners will be announced at the closing event shortly afterward.

A recent newspaper feature on me

As for my own book, well, I FINALLY finished my novel, Dark Chapter — and I’ve signed with The Pontas Agency, a very nifty boutique agency based in Barcelona, who specialize in representing international authors writing on globally relevant themes. Click here to read their announcement about me joining the Pontas fold. It’s very exciting to work with them and to join their distinguished list of clientele.

Me and Anna-Soler Pont, the Pontas CEO, right after I signed with them

The Irish Times have recently run this feature article on me and my experiences leading up to writing the novel. It opens with the first paragraph of Dark Chapter… Hope you enjoy the read!

Not bad! No.1 in The Irish Times Life & Style section

Just launched the Clear Lines Festival

Posted on June 9, 2015 by admin

After two months of hard work and a lot of enthusiasm, I’m very pleased to announce the launch of the Clear Lines Festival, the UK’s first-ever festival dedicated to talking about sexual assault through the arts and discussion. It’s something I co-founded in April (coincidentally, on the anniversary of my own rape) — over coffee with Dr. Nina Burrowes and a group of other amazing women, all of whom are passionate about wanting to change the public conversation about sexual abuse and assault. I personally believe the arts are one of the best ways to approach the issue, by bringing to light the human stories that underpin these experiences. So we’re putting together an exciting programme of artists, writers, comedians, performers, and filmmakers, who will be exploring the topic through their art — along with panel discussions and workshops featuring psychologists, experts, social workers, journalists, and survivors, among others. Nearly all events will be free to the public. The festival will run July 30 – Aug 2 in Central London.

At the moment, we’re busy crowd-funding so we can have enough funds to make the festival possible. We’ll need £3,500 for that — and if we reach our stretch target of £9,000, we’ll be able to film the events and post them online so others around the world can access them. So please do consider pledging if you can! You can watch a video of me talking about the festival here. Join us and together, let’s see if we can replace the silence and stigma that cloud this issue with insight, understanding, and community.

Shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger

Posted on June 4, 2015 by admin

A quick update, which is that I’ve now made the shortlist for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger 2015, for my upcoming novel Dark Chapter. Which means I can now officially use that nifty logo you see right here. Other authors shortlisted for the Daggers this year (albeit, not the Debut Dagger) include Dennis Lehane, Kate Mosse, and Dashiell Hammett… so overall, not bad company to be in! (Yes, Dashiell Hammett’s been dead for a while, but some short stories of his were recently discovered and published for the first time.)

You can read the full shortlist here. The winners will be announced at the CWA Dagger Awards on June 30th in London, to mark the the end of National Crime Reading Month. Which reminds me, I should probably read a crime novel this month… Does Crime and Punishment count? I THINK SO.

Longlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger!

Posted on May 7, 2015 by admin

Another surprise recognition in the genre world… I’m thrilled to have been long listed for the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Debut Dagger Award 2015. This is for the opening of Dark Chapter, my debut literary novel which I’ve been working on for…oh, a year and a half now. (The re-draft is 85% finished.) So it’s good to be getting some recognition for all my work on it! You can read more about the long list here. The CWA is perhaps best known for the Gold Dagger, which in the past has been awarded to Val McDermid, Sara Paretsky, and Ian Rankin, among others. Anyway, the shortlist will be announced May 15th at CrimeFest. Fingers crossed…

Also, a flash fiction piece of mine is now available to download on the nifty Quick Fictions app. I wrote ‘Nabateans’ after my trip to Jordan last summer, and it’s now one of the many bite-size stories you can download and read while commuting, waiting, or for random in-between time. Each story is 300 words or less! Quick Fictions is supported by Myriad Editions, and can be downloaded for only 79p here. (Apparently, it’s ranked No. 5 among the UK’s paid apps.)

Shortlisted for The James White Award!

Posted on April 4, 2015 by admin

Some very unexpected news here — my short story “White Fur” has been shortlisted for The James White Award! This is kinda surprising for me, especially since the competition is for science fiction, and… I don’t tend to write in that genre (even though I am a fan). But encouraging to know that people think my stab at sci-fi is decent! I guess you can say “White Fur” is a dystopian ecology tale and yes, it involves polar bears (my favorite animal). Anyway the winner of the competition will be revealed Easter Sunday at 6pm, at Eastercon 2015 (the British National Science Fiction Convention). The competition is named after James White, the prolific sci-fi author behind the Sector General stories, and is a collaboration between the British Science Fiction Association and Interzone, the UK’s leading and longest-established science fiction magazine. Congrats to the other short-listed writers, and for the official announcement, click here.

A few theatre projects

Posted on March 17, 2015 by admin

I’m pleased to say the London performance of my short play “Everything’s Normal” was sold-out! Thanks to everyone to came, and especially to a great cast and to Tessa Hart at Goblin Baby Theatre Company for making the whole thing possible. Here’s a few photos from the night at the Bread and Roses Theatre:

Photographer: Kenneth Jay

My play was part of the UNHEARD 2015 Festival, exploring themes of sexual abuse and violence through performance. Proceeds from ticket sales went to nia, a non-profit dedicated to ending violence against women and children. More importantly, it was great to meet other artists committed to exploring the many angles and human aspects of this issue through storytelling. The various plays were

Photographer: Kenneth Jay

diverse, funny, often heart-wrenching, and powerful — and I hope to see more theatre like it. For my HuffPost article on the creative process behind the festival, click here.

Another short play of mine will be performed on Saturday, March 21 at The Space Arts Centre in London. This one’s just a silly exercise I knocked off during the 28 Plays Later Challenge, which kept me occupied in February. Yes, me and a bunch of other ambitious/insane writers decided to a write new play every day in February (hence the 28 plays). A creative prompt was emailed out every night, and 36 hours later, we had to send in a new play responding to that. Needless to say, my play on March 21 is a response to: ‘Write a play that rhymes.’ Actually, that one was pretty fun to write!

Anyway, enough with theatre for now (though I hope to do more with writing drama in the future). I’m back to re-drafting my novel at the moment…

Two new collaborations: a play + an urban design project

Posted on December 25, 2014 by admin

Happy Holidays, everyone! Hope you’re all enjoying the festive season, wherever in the world you are. Just wanted update you on two artistic collaborations which I’ve been involved in as a writer. Exciting stuff.

In February, a short play of mine “Everything is Normal” will be performed on a scratch night in London, as part of Unheard 2015, a new writing festival exploring themes around sexual abuse and violence. The Festival runs February 19-22 and will also feature three V-Day benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues. My play will be at 7:30pm on Saturday, Feb 21 at The Bread & Roses Theatre in Clapham, and you can buy tickets for a mere £7 online here. A portion of proceeds will also go to a relevant charity (TBD). Hats off to the curiously-named, activist theatre company Goblin Baby for promoting writing about this important topic!

In November, I contributed a short story to Sense of the City: London, an intriguing urban design project that encourages a multi-sensory exploration of the Clerkenwell/Smithfield area of London. What? Basically, members of the public were invited to wander around that neighborhood, capturing their experience of the sights, smells, sounds they encountered. As writers, we then had to take those reactions and create an artistic response in the form of a short story. Then, actors recorded our writing, and the audio files of those performances can be heard online here. Or you can download the PDF of a newsletter which featured our stories and was distributed throughout the neighborhood. My short story is called “West Smithfield.” If you’re familiar with the area, Smithfield Market, St. Bart’s hospital, Fabric nightclub, and the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great all feature in the story. Hope you enjoy it!

Winnie M Li

author & activist

Category Archives: Creative Writing